Electronic postal/shipping scales (hereinafter "postal scales") are known. Prior art postal scales are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,506 to Hills and copending patent application Ser. No. 139,881, both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application and the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Many postal scales have an alphanumeric display for presenting weight and postal rate information and operator prompt messages. One such display is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,662 to Dlugos, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The prompt messages serve to alert the user that input is required or that an error has occurred.
It is also common for such scales to include a microprocessor and an interface for driving a report printer. Reports generated by the scale usually are in the form of a report heading followed by columns of information, each column beginning with a column heading. A typical report might list all shipping transactions processed by the scale during a period of time. The scale and printer may also be used as a manifest system, like that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,271, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. A manifest is a list of parcels consigned to a carrier for delivery, and includes for each parcel an identification number and the shipping charge. The total charge for the entire group of parcels is also stated.
Prior art postal scales display operator prompt messages and print reports in one language only. In the United States, of course, that language is English. However, in some parts of this country a large part of the population is more versed in another language, e.g. Spanish. Further, in some foreign countries there is more than one official language. In Canada, for example, both French and English are official languages, and use of either or both languages is frequently encouraged or required. Thus, some parcel carriers may require that manifests be printed in English while others require French language manifests. It is also to be noted that a single postal scale often is used by several different people, not all of whom may wish to receive prompt messages or to print reports in the same language.
It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a postal scale which is suitable for use by poly-lingual groups of users.